NOTES 101 



their worst foe is indolence, often not wilful but due to the fact 

 that curiosity has never been stimulated and the thinking 

 powers never awakened. Memory has generally been cultivated, 

 sometimes imagination, but those whose faculties can best 

 be reached through external and sensible objects have been left 

 dull or made dull by being expected to remember and appreciate 

 without being allowed to see and criticise. In the science 

 lesson, the eye and the judgment are always being called upon 

 for an effort, and because the result is within the vision and 

 appreciation of the learner he is encouraged as he seldom can 

 be when he is dealing with literature. It has often been noticed 

 that boys when they begin to learn Science receive an intellectual 

 refreshment which makes a difference even to their literary work." 



There is more than this, however. On a subsequent page 

 the Committee says : 



" The introduction of practical work into the curriculum 

 widens the opportunities of discovering ability which might 

 otherwise be overlooked. One witness writes : ' Often, very 

 often, the dunce of the form when put on to practical work 

 becomes brilliant.' It is the function of any system of educa- 

 tion to discover ability as well as to develop it, and under a 

 system in which the curriculum is entirely bookish many 

 able boys may be depressed and lose all interest in their work 

 from want of success and of opportunity to reveal their ability." 



As to this I can personally testify. At school I was regarded 

 as an utter dunce. I spent seven wasted years in the fruitless 

 endeavour to acquire the rudiments of Latin, and I failed 

 egregiously and ignominiously. I never was able to construe a 

 simple sentence of Latin. I left school with the reputation of 

 a dunce, and the disheartening conviction that I was incurably 

 imbecile. When I entered the hospital and took to the study 

 of Science, I cleared the board of every prize and scholarship 

 that was open to competition. 



The Committee will of course be accused of desiring to oust 

 literary and linguistic studies altogether from the scheme of 

 education that they recommend, and upon this will be founded 

 a charge of encouraging a gross and sordid materialism, blind 

 and deaf to every consideration but that of material and 

 crapulent prosperity. This is the pseudo-argument that is 

 always advanced against those who advocate the inclusion of 

 Natural Science in Education. Let us hear, therefore, what 

 the Report says on the matter. 



